Cuffed
by DreamNin
Summary: If either of them had known what the outcome of that mission would be, I doubt either of them would've even bothered to get up that morning. KakaSaku
1. Is it too late to chew my own arm off?

Disclaimer: …

Since that stupid little vicious plot-bunny wouldn't go away, I decided to try actually writing the story. It's a lighter KakaSaku which I think is a good contrast with BFM. While Bleed For Me was my first fanfic, ever, this will be my first attempt at humor. May God have mercy on your souls…

**Cuffed**

Chapter 1: Is it too late to chew my own arm off?

"So remind me again just _how_ exactly we're supposed to get into the village?" a thoroughly frustrated Sakura asked quietly, albeit irately.

"Uh, walk in?" a slightly confused silver-haired man replied, not nearly as peeved as his partner.

The pink-haired medic almost had a heart-attack. "And risk being seen with you… _like this_?!?!" she practically screeched motioning downwards toward their current predicament.

Kakashi cringed at her volume and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, I'm not _that_ bad. Am I… Sakura-_chan_?" he teased knowing that the added _chan_ to her name would piss her off more.

"THE HELL YOU AREN'T!!! Sakura screeched apparently forgetting that they were trying to avoid detection.

Kakashi sighed. Strangely enough the two of them were crouching in the foliage at the base of the wall surrounding their beloved Konoha. Honestly he just didn't see what the problem was; he could always just read Icha Icha with his other hand.

He heard an angry grunt coming from his right. He didn't even glance down when he heard her start yelling at him… again.

"You know this is all _your_ fault!" She accused rather than asked.

Putting on his best fake innocent face, he said sweetly "My fault? I don't know what you're talking about."

Sakura made a noise that sounded like a cross between choking with disbelief and snorting at his blatant lie. "You're kidding right? I mean I know that disgusting porn has infected your brain and has caused you irreparable brain damage, but I seriously cannot believe that you don't see how this is **entirely** _your_ fault." She retorted with a scoff.

Putting his left hand to his masked chin, he tried to remember just what had happened on their latest mission-gone-wrong.

"_Kakashi?"_

_He heard a voice behind him. He turned to see his partner's pink head peek around the door into the room he had wandered into._

_She walked in and sighed, whether in relief for finally have found him and not another enemy ninja, or in frustration that they were behind schedule and really should've left now that their target was successfully eliminated._

_Knowing Sakura as well as he did, it was probably the latter._

"_What are you doing in here anyway?" she questioned wiping her bloodied kunai on her medic skirt and placing it back into its holster._

_Kakashi smirked a bit under the mask. He was sure she really didn't want to hear the answer so he just kept quiet._

_They had been assigned a simple scroll retrieval/assassination mission over in the Land of Wind. Their target had been upsetting the local lords and so they had paid the two of them to sort of bump him off. Apparently the lords' wives had all been having an affair with their target who had used them to get his hands on a some special scroll or other and instead of settling the little marital issue they had simply sent shinobi after the guy. It had been easy work for the two of them as they had just infiltrated the man's rather large home and killed him swiftly and silently. _

_Sometime after the briefing Sakura had casually let slip her interest in why exactly the women would keep coming back to the man even though they knew that they were just being used. Now as an avid reader of Icha Icha, Kakashi had many ideas as to how exactly it was done, a few suggestions he had even enlightened Sakura with. _

_He was still nursing the rather large bump hidden under his mop of silver hair._

_Although he had a few ideas of his own, her question had sparked his interest as well. The most logical being that the man employed the use of "unconventional" sexual practices which kept the women always coming back for more._

_This little interest was one of the reasons why Kakashi currently found himself in the promiscuous man's bedroom digging through his nightstand drawer. In truth Kakashi wanted to know if the man had any Icha Icha volumes. It was just that he figured a man as promiscuous as that either read some form of "literature" for inspiration… or just knew Genma._

_Sakura simply figured that he was looking for the scroll, but was still kinda peeved that he hadn't even bothered to answer her. Kakashi was glad for the misconception as he had actually found and pocketed the scroll a while back, leaving him free to pursue more dubious avenues of interest._

_She leaned against the door frame, probably from lack of chakra. She had healed all her wounds and his as well and was probably not feeling up to much of anything right now other than getting back to Konoha. _

_Turning his attention as well as his body toward the drawer he was rummaging around in, under the false pretense of searching for the scroll, he heard Sakura huff and walk out into the hall. _

_Before he had a chance to let out a sigh of relief that she had not kept pestering him, she was back, and this time she was nowhere near as calm as she had been only moments before._

"_Kakashi! We need to go! I can sense some ninja coming and if the murderous intent pouring off of them is any indication, I'd say they're probably not too friendly," she yelled in a hushed voice as though they didn't already know someone was here._

_The whole time she had been talking, Kakashi had continued poking around in the drawer._

_He had to make it look like he had found the scroll in the drawer or else never hear the end of Sakura's ranting about how he was wasting time and whatnot._

_Suddenly he felt metal on his fingertips and with a snap something cold encircled his right wrist. Gasping in surprise he looked down to find out what was now attached to his wrist._

_Sakura mistakenly taking the gasp of surprise for an "Ah ha!" of triumph, she walked over quickly. "Did you find it?" she asked grabbing his wrist to pull out his hand and supposedly the scroll out with it._

_Snap._

_They both stared down at the shiny, silver metal handcuffs now binding them together by the wrists._

"_What the-?!?!" Sakura exclaimed, trying to break it. Not that Kakashi hadn't tried that immediately after discerning what it was. He just hadn't thought Sakura would actually walk over to help him. Maybe she really did care for him?_

_She tried to crush the metal cuff smashing his hand in the process._

_Or maybe not…_

"_What did you do?" she accused him as though he did this deliberately. He had been about to say something in his defense when the sound of the ninja getting closer filled their ears._

_Groaning, he said "We'll take care of this later, but we gotta go now!" _

"_But the scr-" she began but was cut off by Kakashi._

"_Already got it! Now let's go!"_

_Thankfully she didn't take this time to reprimand him for withholding information. Neither of them had much chakra left as the man had had ninja guards practically leaking out the walls, as well as Sakura's healing, so both had realized it was best to leave without getting into another fight. Although they could probably pull a win out of their ass if they tried, they weren't going to risk it._

_They took their leave out the window and using the cover of night as they couldn't mask their chakra at this point, they fled into the forest, back toward Konoha._

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly.

Oops. It had been entirely his fault. Not that he was going to admit that to Sakura. She still didn't know why he had been in that drawer in the first place. She just needed someone to blame right now and he'd rather she suspect it was all his fault than for him to open his mouth and prove it.

Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he saw that she had given up trying to use her monstrous strength to break the handcuffs. _Finally,_ he thought. They had tried everything to get out of them on the 6 hour journey back to Konoha ranging from chakra-enhanced poundings, unbinding jutsu and teleportation jutsu. Obviously nothing had worked.

Apparently, although they could still use jutsus and access their chakra, the handcuffs had some sort of strange binding jutsu on them that cancelled out all chakra and non-chakra attempts to escape. After calming down enough to properly examine them, Kakashi had found that they would only release when the proper jutsu was used on it. Unfortunately, as it seemed to be a custom item created by their target for less than honorable uses, he was the only one who knew how to release them. Vaguely Kakashi wondered if there was some sort of necro-information retrieval jutsu that he wasn't aware of because for some strange reason, their target just wasn't talking. It might have had something to do with the gigantic scorched hole right through his chest. Kakashi smirked a little despite the situation. Ah, good times…

"What are you smirking about?" Sakura snapped without even looking up.

"Who said I was smirking?" he asked a bit surprised because when he smirked his eye didn't crease like it did when he was smiling.

"Oh come on. I can just _feel_ it," she retorted hotly.

Kakashi just left it at that. Maybe he had been spending too much time around the pink-haired medic if she could actually _feel_ his expressions despite the mask's presence? Since Naruto and Sasuke had joined ANBU, it had mostly just been him and Sakura on missions. It had been that way for a year or two already. Strangely she hadn't gotten on his nerves yet… Eh, whatever. Now to focus on the issue at hand…

"Genjutsu?"

"What?" Sakura stared raising an eyebrow.

Sighing deeply he began, "That's how we can get in. If we cast a genjutsu on the guards we can make it look like no one's there. While normally this simple trick would never work on a Konoha gate guard as they are elite ninja, it's like 4 in the morning and so guard duty is usually forced onto unlucky chuunin. As a genjutsu type, if you cast it, I don't think they'll be able to even recognize it for what it is much less release it. So do we have a plan?"

Mulling it over for a second, she seemed to be weighing out the pros and cons of this course of action as she was numbering them off on her fingers. Apparently deciding that it was indeed the best plan they had if her determined nod was any indication, she looked up at him.

"Though it leaves much to be desired, it's as good a plan as any," she said somewhat put-out that she hadn't thought of it.

Nodding curtly he motioned for Sakura to jump up to the top of the wall with him. He grasped the edge as did Sakura and peeked over the edge. Taking note of the two guards, one on each side of the gate, he dropped back down to the ground.

Now that she knew where they were, trapping them would be child's play. As she began making the proper hand signs for the genjutsu she realized that while not making a fuss, Kakashi was getting a little irritated at the fact that his arm kept jerking back and forth along with Sakura's.

"Oops. Sorry," she grinned sheepishly.

He ignored her and started dragging her over to the entrance to make sure it had worked. Checking left and right for the guards, they both seemed to have fallen asleep. Almost rolling her eyes at the simplicity of it all, Sakura made a mental note to tell Tsunade that Konoha's guard was a little lax lately.

"And we're in," Kakashi said almost cheerfully.

Sakura would've sighed in relief but they were still freakin' chained together. A fact that still embarrassed her. Of all the people in the world to be handcuffed to, she got her goofy, chronically late, perverted former sensei. Don't get her wrong though, she knew he had his redeeming qualities, as she had found out in the past two years of their partnership, but at the moment, none came to mind.

As they slunk down the dark streets, they were careful to avoid the main road for obvious reasons. As they turned a corner however, Sakura ran smack into someone's chest. Falling backwards whether from the impact or from Kakashi yanking the chain so she was hidden behind him, she didn't know. While a part of her was almost offended for him hiding her like she was some bar skank he was embarrassed to be seen with, the part that hadn't gone completely stupid realized it was either this or be found out as she highly doubted she could pull off hiding Kakashi behind her back.

"Oh hey man! I didn't know you were back in the village," none other than the village play-boy Genma said, senbon in mouth, "Well let's not let a good night go to waste. There's a couple of women who've been waiting for me back at the bar. I bet I could hook ya up with one." Grinning lecherously as always he grabbed the hand that wasn't hidden behind Kakashi's back and tried to drag him off. When Kakashi resisted Genma prompted, "Aw come on. I know you're like as social as a homosexual turtle, but it's just a couple of drinks!"

Finally speaking up, almost wanting to hit his supposed best friend for that little comment, Kakashi protested, "Uh no thanks, I'm tired. I think I'll just head home now." And without waiting for a response, Kakashi turned around ushering a smirking Sakura forward so she wouldn't be seen.

And while she couldn't be sure, she swore she heard a mutter of 'whatever wanker. More for me' floating on the wind.

---

Heading down an alternate road now, they came to the place where they usually parted ways at the end of their missions. Unconsciously began walking down the road that led to their house and only stopped when the chain was suddenly pulled taut and dragged them back towards each other. Falling rather unceremoniously, she dragged Kakashi down with her.

Landing on her with a small oomph, he blinked and just stared up at the sky for a moment.

Face down in the dirt, Sakura grunted for him to get off of her. Complying, he rolled over once, not very far away but just enough to be off of her.

Kakashi cursed audibly.

Looking across the ground at him, she pouted.

"Well it's not like I meant to drag us down. God I'm sorry alright?"

Shaking his head, he said, "Not that."

"What then?" she asked curiously.

"Whose apartment?" he asked plainly.

"Whose apartment what?" she asked, kind of slow on the uptake that night.

"We have to sleep together. So whose apartment?" he stated almost like he was bored.

"WHAT?!?!" she yelled jumping straight up, half dragging Kakashi to his feet too. She was blushing furiously. Did he just? Sakura's mind was racing. Or rather short-circuiting.

Seeing her stark reaction, he realized she must have taken it the wrong way. So he tried rephrasing it. Pulling his wrist up so that the chain rattled in front of her face, he switched into his sensei voice and spoke slowly like he were talking to Naruto, "We're still stuck together so we'll have to stay at either your apartment or mine."

Breathing like a wounded wildebeest, Sakura waited until her breathing calmed down. Oh, is that all he meant? Hehe oops, Sakura berated herself.

"Well mine of course! I'm not going to inconvenience myself for your sake, especially when this is all-," she began but then stopped abruptly, groaning in realization.

"What is it now?" Kakashi asked slightly irritated that he had to spend even one more night away from his beloved Icha Icha collection at home. He wasn't stupid. He knew that if Sakura wanted them to stay at her apartment, no force on heaven or earth was going to stop her.

"Ino."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow in question.

Sighing, she explained, "We share an apartment."

"So?" the slightly anti-social man practically whined. He didn't find that a problem. Although Ino and Sakura couldn't really be considered girls anymore, not at 19, Kakashi didn't see them as anything more than his former student/partner/friend (sometimes depending on Sakura's mood) and Sakura's bossy, female-version of Naruto friend. He had no problem with the situation as he could resist all temptation despite their appearances because well, he wasn't Genma.

"Sooo," she stretched, "there's no way we can stay there! God, I thought you were supposed to be a genius? What the hell? Did I get the retarded prodigy or something. Geez. Anyway, if Ino saw me handcuffed to you, I would probably have to kill her in order to shut her up and be charged with murder, or she'll laugh herself to death and I'll be charged with murder then too. You get it now?"

Honestly? No. But he wasn't about to say that, especially after just being called a fake genius and a retard prodigy. Don't think that he was going soft or anything because if it had been anyone but Sakura, the last thing they would hear would be a loud chirping…

Tired already, he said quickly, "So my place then?"

Looking like she was thinking it over, like she really had a choice, she nodded slowly.

Not even waiting for her to stand back up, Kakashi dragged her off in the direction of his apartment, her muttering obscene things at the rude gesture underneath her breath.

This was going to be a long night…

---

A/N- eh it was supposed to be longer but I kinda got lazy.

I know handcuffing two characters together is kinda clichéd but I really wanted a kakasaku one but there weren't any, so I decided to make one. And honestly I have no idea where this is going so I guess I'll just wing it.

Well, as always leave a review as they encourage me to update faster.


	2. Yes, its too late to chew my own arm off

Disclaimer: …

Ok so sorry for taking so long to post this but I've been working on it in my spare time but it's SAT time so I haven't really had much of it…

Oh and I don't know if I previously wrote which hand was chained to which so for all intents and purposes just go with whatever I say in this chapter ok, 'cause I'm kinda tired right now and I have that test in the morning.

**Cuffed**

Chapter 2: Yes, it's too late to chew off my own arm

After reaching the neglected door of the yellow apartment complex, the pair stopped. While Kakashi had merely stopped because she had, Sakura had stopped in the realization that she had never seen the inside of his apartment before, despite being his student for three years and teammate/partner for another four. Suddenly she was excited.

Looking like she was finally ready, for what he didn't know, Kakashi simply pushed open the door.

This simple act surprised Sakura. "You don't lock your door?" she asked plaintively.

With a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders he asked, "What's the point?"

"Uh, to keep people from stealing your crap?" she scoffed choosing to use the word 'crap' rather than 'belongings' or 'possessions' or even 'stuff' as she doubted Kakashi had anything of real value in his apartment; for she knew better than anyone what a cheapskate tightwad he was.

"Well I assure you my 'crap' is just fine."

Sakura shrugged and walked through the doorway after Kakashi.

Kicking the door shut behind him, he pulled off his sandals, wandered over to the kitchen area and started digging around for something to eat. After following his lead and removing her shoes, Sakura took this opportunity to check out his apartment. The front door let in to a sort of living room with an open kitchen to the right. There was a table with only one chair in front of the bar-counter. There was a short hallway leading off to the left from the living room that she assumed led to the bathroom and his bedroom. Glancing at the sparsely furnished rooms she could see, to say the least, it was very… Kakashi. Everything looked casual and lazily arranged with no particular effort or design, but upon further inspection one could see that everything was strategically placed and everything in the room had a purpose. Sakura smiled. She decided that she liked it here. For some reason she felt comfortable here.

Kakashi stood watching Sakura check out his apartment, amused with the face of disbelief and disgust she displayed when her eyes passed over the large bookshelf filled top to bottom with Icha Icha volumes.

"So, see anything you like?" he asked just to ruffle her feathers, even though she was probably still on a bit of a short fuse since the whole hand-cuffed thing. But then again, when was she ever not?

Sure enough, it got a rise out of her. She looked up at him angrily and shouted, "Like?!?! There is NOTHING about you that I like! I mean, how can you possibly have so many volumes of…," and here she struggled for a word strong enough to express her point. Having finally found one she continued, "…PORN?!?! What could you possibly be doing with them?" she demanded, albeit a bit rhetorically.

He looked down at her and raised an eyebrow, clearly suggestively.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Oh my GOD! Ewww… Kakashi!" she screamed and punched him in the arm playfully.

Kakashi chuckled and rubbed his now throbbing arm, because playfully or not, she was still Sakura, which meant superhuman strength abound.

"What? You did ask…"

She glared at him and mumbled, "Well yeah, but I didn't really expect you to answer and certainly not like THAT!"

"What can I say, I know what I like," he shrugged it off and continued rummaging around for something to eat.

Sakura stuck her tongue out at his turned back. If it had been anyone else, that conversation would've been highly awkward and Sakura probably would've punished whoever it was that suggested something so dirty. But seeing as how it was Kakashi, she shrugged it off just as easily as he had. She smiled then thinking about it. Though she hadn't been able to remember any good qualities about him earlier, that was one of the things that she liked about him. Nothing seemed to faze him and these weird little conversations that she frequently had with him were nothing short of normal. They were comfortable with each other, and although neither of them would admit it, the other was the only one they'd ever joke around with like that.

Sakura was broken out of her reverie because of a loud sigh. Turning to look at the source of the noise, she almost burst out laughing. Kakashi had resigned himself to sitting cross-legged on his kitchen floor, arms folded and if Sakura hadn't know any better, she would have thought him to be pouting.

Not being able to resist the temptation to ask, she teased, "Aww, is the big, tough copy-nin pouting 'cause he's hungwy?"

Kakashi looked up at her and if he wasn't pouting before, he was now. Yanking down hard with his left arm, he dragged Sakura's chained right arm down so she fell on the floor beside him.

"Kakashi! What the hell?!?!" Sakura screeched as she fell. Kakashi just smirked. Yes, it was juvenile and yes it was extremely childish especially for a supposedly 33-year-old man, but hey, he was Kakashi after all, and he was nothing if not unpredictable.

Sakura tried standing back up, but again Kakashi pulled her down. Instead of getting irritated which was what she normally did, she decided to be the mature one. Ok so she planned to get even with him later, but at the moment she was being the mature one since there were more important things to discuss at the current moment. Sitting so she was facing him, she asked, "We're not going to just sit here all night are we?"

"Well I wasn't planning on it, but why? You got something else you'd rather be doing with me on this floor?"

Despite the casual way in which Kakashi said it, Sakura still felt her cheeks burning, even though she knew he was just teasing.

"Yeah, no. I was just wondering what we were going to do."

Leaning back so his weight was on his hands, he looked up at the ceiling and smiled.

Sakura waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

When she finally couldn't take it anymore she said irately, "Well?"

He looked back at her as though just now noticing that she was in the room. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath and said, "I have no idea."

Sakura would've fallen over had she not already been sitting down on the floor.

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?!?!" she demanded, none to quietly.

Cringing slightly at the volume and pitch of her voice, Kakashi reiterated.

"I said, I don't know?" he tested as though hoping she wouldn't scream again.

"I heard what you said, I was just kind of hoping that you were joking. I mean we can't stay chained up together like this! What would people say if they saw us together like this?"

Kakashi twiddled his thumbs and said lightly, "Eh, probably the same things they already say when they see us together now. 'Look there's that hentai and his poor, little student.' Like I'm doing something more than just talking with you. But hey, what's it matter anyways? The way I see it, I'll probably never talk to one of those people in my life, so…" here he trailed off, leaving Sakura staring at him funny.

"What?" he asked cautiously as though wary of Sakura's sudden interest.

"It bothers you," Sakura stated more than asked.

"What?" he asked again, but this time more in incredulance than inquiry.

"I said, it bothers you. What they think about us I mean." She said again.

"Wha-? No it doesn't," he defended, "I mean if I really cared what they thought do you really think that I'd read erotic literature in public?"

Sakura almost laughed. Whether from the fact that he was lying, and very convincingly so, or the fact that he had called that filth he read 'erotic literature'. Sakura assumed probably both. Back in her genin days, she would've never been able to tell if he was lying (seriously lying, not lame excuse lying), but now with the years of first-hand interaction, if she tried hard enough, she could tell. And right now, he was lying.

"You're lying," she told him outright.

"No I'm not," he tried again. He really hoped that Sakura would just drop it. It was a lot more complicated than that, more so due to the fact that he didn't understand why it even bothered him in the first place. That being said, he really didn't want to admit it to her. Hell he didn't even want to admit it to himself.

"Yes you are," she insisted.

"No I'm not," he tried one last time.

"Yes you are. You keep denying it but that doesn't change the fact that you are lying. What are you so afraid of admitting?"

"NO!"

Sakura looked at him with confusion. He had raised his voice. He never raised his voice. Well maybe to shout out a jutsu to kill the enemy but never to her. It was one thing for Kakashi to rile up Sakura, but it was quite another for it to happen the other way around. It was then that she realized something was bothering him and she had a feeling that she had hit a nerve with her insensitive prodding.

He stared at the floor, his cheeks burning beneath the mask. He hadn't meant to yell at her. He had never raised his voice to her before, but something in him just snapped. Something was bothering him and he didn't know what it was. It was clear that whatever it was it went beyond this conversation. And it didn't help matters either that they were chained together.

Watching him seem to physically diminish before her eyes, suddenly she felt ashamed of herself.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," she apologized.

Kakashi looked up in near astonishment. Why was she apologizing? He was the one that had rudely yelled at her when she was just been trying to help. Sort of.

"Don't apologize. I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm sorry," he said quietly looking into her caring, green eyes.

She nodded slightly in acceptance of his apology and they both sat there in silence.

After a few more moments of silence, Kakashi spoke again.

"So you wanna call it a night?" he asked as it was well past five in the morning now.

Already partially drifting between states of unconsciousness, she nodded again, but this time sleepily.

She made a move to get up, but was stopped by Kakashi. Scooping her up in his arms, he gracefully walked over to the direction of his bedroom.

Blearily through one eye, Sakura noticed this and struggled a bit. "Where do you think you're taking me?" she demanded as firmly as she could given her current sleep-deprived state.

"Well we have to sleep somewhere and the couch isn't big enough for the two of us," Kakashi explained casually.

"Wha-? What do you mean 'the two of us'?"

"Sakura, in case you've forgotten, we're still hand-cuffed together. The chain's only about six inches long so we really don't have a choice but to share a bed. Besides what's the big deal, it's not like we haven't done it before."

_True_, Sakura thought through her foggy mind, _but that was only on missions and back then we weren't only six inches apart!_

"But… but-," finding no logical argument against him, she gave in. "Fine, but only because you begged me," she said smiling.

And though Kakashi had no recollection of ever doing said thing, he smiled too. He nudged the door open with his back and gently laid Sakura on the green, shuriken-printed bed. He sat down on the edge with his back facing her and began to take off his clothes and rather violently too. He literally ripped off his vest and shirt and threw them on the ground.

Sakura's eye nearly twitched out of her head. "Ah! What the hell do you think you're doing?!?" she demanded now fully awake and covering her eyes with her free hand.

Kakashi looked behind him at Sakura's attempt to cover her eyes, but laughed when he saw that she was peeking just a little bit.

"Relax Sakura. Tearing it is the only way I can get my shirt off as we're still hand-cuffed together in case you forgot and though normally I don't sleep with any clothes on at all, tonight I'll keep my boxers on, just for you, okay?" he said with that familiar eye-crease of his.

Sakura choked on seemingly air and spluttered indignantly. "Kakashi! What the-?" she started squawking but was cut off by the silver-haired man's laugh.

"Calm down Sakura, I'm only joking… well not really, but still you know what I mean," he said placing his hitai-ate on the nightstand.

Sakura blushed at the revelation that he wasn't just joking about normally sleeping nude. To cover up her embarrassment, she yanked her arm in front of her, and consequently Kakashi's too, then sank down into the covers. She was a little put out by the fact that Kakashi hadn't taken off his mask, not even to go to sleep.

His laughing was abruptly cut off as his arm was almost ripped out of its socket. "Ow, Sakura-chan that was so mean!" he whined childishly in what she supposed was his imitation of her.

_Damn, the man does a better me than I do!_ Sakura thought from underneath the covers.

"You're not really going to sleep in your clothes are you?" he asked slipping into the bed next to her, but with as much space between them as the chain would allow. Which wasn't very much as they were still just barely touching.

Sakura tensed a little, but realized he had a point with the whole clothes comment. For gods sake she still had her medic skirt on! Taking the loaded skirt off and dropping it on the floor, she looked at Kakashi pointedly. "That's all I'm taking off so don't even try asking for more."

Kakashi smiled despite himself. "Suit yourself," he said shortly then turned slightly so that they were back to back.

They lay there in silence for an indefinite amount of time, the only sound in the room of their slow, deep breathing.

After some time, Sakura spoke though almost asleep. "Kakashi? You awake?" she tried quietly with her eyes closed.

"Hn," came his muffled reply.

Something had been weighing on her mind since earlier that night and in her half-conscious state, she threw caution to the wind and just asked. "You know you shouldn't care so much about what people think of you," she mumbled.

Kakashi's dark eyes flew open in surprise. He had been about to fall asleep when she had spoken but now he was wide awake. Something about what she had said had made something inside of him click and he paused a moment before answering her.

"It's not what 'people' think of me that I care about. All I really care about… is what _you_ think of me," he whispered to the empty space in front of him.

He waited for Sakura's reply, but when she didn't say anything, he looked over his shoulder at her to see that she had already fallen asleep.

Laying his head back down on the pillow, he smiled and closed his eyes.

---------------

A/N- had a little trouble with this chapter so sorry if it sounds a bit awkward or just isn't up to my normal standards but just you wait, I have the next chapter all planned out. What will people, especially Ino, Sasuke and Naruto do when they find out? evil cackle You'll see…

As always please review as I am in desperate need of some review-formatted love right now.


	3. Oh yeah, it's definitely too late

Disclaimer: Oh I think you know…

Disclaimer: Oh I think you know…

Hey Hey guess who's not dead? But Oh my GOD! I am sooooo sorry that it took so long to get this out, but I fell into a massive, all-consuming Twilight obsession that made me get all caught up in that fandom as well as start writing some of my own Twilight fics. Also with college applications and senior presentations (hey that totally rhymes!) I was really busy. Plus Sakura-Con was this weekend (god that just shows how long I've had this chapter unfinished… Sakura-Con was in March!) and I'd been scrounging for money to attend that also. To be honest you should all thank Caitiy (author of Simple Things, an absolutely amazing KakaSaku fic) because her recent coming off of hiatus has once again inspired me to start up writing my Naruto fics again. Well that and I think I may have read every single Twilight fanfic currently out there… But, anyways, sorry for the wait, but at least you all know I'm not dead now. And that's always a good thing, right? Right? o.O

Reminder to myself (and to anyone else who keeps forgetting like me): Kakashi is hand-cuffed on his left wrist, Sakura on her right. Ok got it…

**Cuffed**

Chapter 3: Oh yeah, it's _definitely_ too late…

"Sakura-Chan!" a gratingly cheerful voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Sakura-Chaaaaan!" It cried out even louder, this time accompanied by a banging on the door.

"Sakura-Chaaaaaaaa-Ack!" the voice was cut off suddenly by a powerful hand that came from the suddenly opened door to grip him around his throat.

"Kuso Naruto! What the hell are you thinking? Do you know what time it is? Why the hell are you even up already?!" an irate and still-sleep frazzled Ino screamed into the annoying blond's face.

Strange gurgling and gasping noises followed her questioning reminding her that she was probably choking poor Naruto since he was already turning blue. Releasing the early morning annoyance, he fell to the floor gasping and spluttering. Ino just glared at him, not even bothering to say sorry. In her mind it was well-justified. I mean, it was 6 in the fucking morning! Who the hell did he think he was- disturbing her not-so-much-needed beauty sleep?

"I- gasp- just- wheeze- wanted- heave- to know if- pant- Sakura was ho-home," Naruto rasped out with no small amount of difficulty.

Getting even more irritated by the fact that it had taken him so long to get the goddamn sentence out, Ino contemplated kicking him in the face as long as he was down there, but ultimately decided against it. Sighing, she said, "Forehead's not here. She was supposed to come back from her mission last night, but I guess her mission's running taking a little longer than they thought it would."

"Nu-uh!" Naruto protested, jumping back up, "I already went to go see Tsunade-Baa-chan and she said Sakura and Kakashi's names were checked in last night, even though the two guards didn't remember _seeing_ them… and she's not at the Teme's house!"

"Well I don't know how that's possible, but she's clearly not here nor did she come home last night. And apparently she didn't think her whereabouts significant enough to tell me where she'd be, so go away Naruto before you find yourself one crucial body part short!" Ino vented, slamming the door in the none-to-bright boy's face before he had the chance to waste any more of her day- a day in which she hadn't planned on starting for at least another six hours…

Trudging back off to bed, Ino couldn't help but wonder where her supposed best friend was. It wasn't like Sakura not to tell at least somebody (usually Naruto or herself) where she'd be. _Maybe I should try and go find her? Maybe Sakura's in trouble and needs my help? Maybe I'll just make sure she's ok?_

But then her head came in contact with the pillow.

_Nah, I'm sure she's fine…_

And with that last thought, the blonde was lost to blissful sleep.

--

Stirring at the sensation of unusual warmth, Sakura opened her eyes slowly. They snapped wide open however as they took in her surroundings- surroundings that weren't her room nor any room she was familiar with.

Struggling to calm herself, she tried to remember the last thing she had done. Since she hadn't been drunk or anything, it wasn't a difficult task, however, she almost wished it had been. Maybe then she wouldn't have remembered why she was currently in her sensei's bed.

While trying to roll over to at least put some distance between them, she finally noticed his arms around her and a leg between hers. Not to mention the chain preventing her from getting up and running screaming out of his apartment. She groaned, although a part of her had to admit that it was kind of nice to wake up so warm and cozy. Luckily for her, she was exceedingly good at suppressing unwanted parts of her psyche. Hoping he wasn't awake to witness her embarrassment. But he being the elite shinobi he was had, of course, woken up only seconds after she herself had.

He leaned over to look her in the face and gave her that infuriating eye-crease of his.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan."

She groaned again. How could he be so calm about practically spooning his former student and current partner?

'_Cause he's Kakashi that's how_, Sakura thought to herself and rolled her eyes at her own stupidity.

"Um, Kakashi? Do you mind uh, releasing me?"

"But I'm comfy like this," he mumbled and snuggled closer.

Sakura sighed. Who knew the fearsome killing-machine that was the copy-nin was so cuddly in the morning?

Well if he wasn't going to move himself, then Sakura would have to do it for him. She tugged on the chain between them, hoping to move his arm off her that way.

It only pulled his arm over further, so now he was almost laying on top of her. And to make matters worse, when she tried to wiggle out of his grasp, she felt something press up against the back of her thigh. She blushed furiously and hoped to Kami that Kakashi was asleep again. Maybe then, she could just try to scoot out from under him and-

"Um, Sakura? Could you maybe stop moving around so much?" his sleep-deepened voice asked from right beside her ear.

Great, he was awake. Well this can't possibly get any more awkward…

Oh, but Kami wasn't done screwing her over yet.

Suddenly there was a loud banging on the door with an even louder (and infinitely more annoying) voice screaming from behind it.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU IN THERE?! I CAN'T FIND SAKURA-CHAN! I THINK SHE'S IN TROUBLE! YOU GOTTA COME HELP ME FIND HER, KAKASHI-SENSEI! KAKASHI-SENSEI?"

Sakura shot up, dragging Kakashi half-up with her as well.

"Oh my God! You don't think he'd-," Sakura trailed off horrified at the prospect of Naruto finding her in Kakashi's apartment. In bed with Kakashi in Kakashi's apartment. Half-naked in bed with Kakashi in Kakashi's apartment. Half-naked and hand-cuffed in bed with Kakashi in Kakashi's apartment.

The look on his face said everything she needed to know. In fact, Sakura would be willing to bet that Naruto had done it before.

Her worst fears (at the moment) were realized as she heard a loud, "I'M COMING IN!" and the unmistakable sound of footsteps rapidly coming closer.

Before she even had a chance to gasp, Kakashi had pushed her under the covers and pulled her closer to his body. Not a second later, the door burst open and from under the covers Sakura could hear them talking- well one of them talking, the other one shouting.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! SAKURA-CHAN'S MISSING!"

"Naruto, what are you screaming about?" Kakashi's calm and collected voice responded. Sakura was pressed up so close to him that she could feel the vibrations in his chest. She knew it was crucial for her to be this close to him otherwise it would look like there were two people in the bed (which there were, but Naruto couldn't find that out). She knew she had to stay completely still, but with her face pressed up against his stomach and the rest of her curled up between his legs, she was finding it increasingly difficult.

"I ASKED TSUNADE-BAA-CHAN AND SHE SAID YOU GUYS CHECKED IN ALREADY! BUT WHEN I WENT TO SAKURA-CHAN'S HOUSE, INO-CHAN SAID SHE DIDN'T COME HOME LAST NIGHT!" Naruto continued yelling, even though Kakashi was only a few feet away.

"So?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly, causing Sakura to giggle a bit at how she imagined Naruto would take that. Kakashi nudged her side with his leg in an attempt to remind her to be quiet. Luckily her giggle was drowned out by Naruto's yelling.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'SO'? SAKURA-CHAN'S MISSING AND YOU DON'T EVEN CARE? WHAT KIND OF HORRIBLE SENSEI ARE YOU?" Naruto accused.

"Well Sakura's a big girl. I'm sure she can take care of herself."

"BUT WHAT IF-," Naruto began but was cut off by Kakashi calming telling him there was no reason to keep shouting.

"Oh sorry. Like I was saying, but what if she needs our help?"

"I highly doubt that. She's probably just staying over at a friend's house or something."

"BUT SAKURA-CHAN DOESN'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS!" Naruto yelled, forgetting all about Kakashi's warning to keep it down.

Sakura would've got up and pounded the crap out of him for saying something like that- doesn't have any friends? She'd show him who won't have something when she's done with him- but unfortunately she was still stuck to Kakashi, so her vengeful actions would have to wait until she was out of this predicament.

Kakashi could've groaned aloud at the blond's stupidity. Although Kakashi was sure that he meant any friends other than himself, Sasuke, Naruto and Ino (sometimes), it sounded like he meant at all- and that just simply wasn't true. Sakura had a lot of friends. In fact, Kakashi would even go so far as to say more than half the village were Sakura's friends, and certainly the majority of the ninjas. When one was as kind as Sakura was and had healed and/or saved your life on numerous occasions like Sakura had, one tended to accumulate a lot of admirers.

Before Sakura could jump up to get revenge on the unwary boy, thus blowing their cover (literally), Kakashi intervened.

"Naruto, I'm sure she's fine. Now could you please get out?" Kakashi attempted to get rid of him.

"BUT YOU GOTTA HELP ME FIND HER! COME ON!" Naruto protested and grabbed Kakashi's visible arm and attempted to pull him out of bed.

Snatching his arm back quicker than Naruto could comprehend, Kakashi suddenly dropped all friendly pretenses.

"Naruto, I'm serious. Get. Out. Now." He said in a quiet and calm voice that belayed the menace underneath.

One look at his former sensei's darkening eye and Naruto knew he wasn't kidding. Backing out of the room slowly, he stuttered out apologies until he reached the bedroom door. Then he turned quickly and ran for his life.

Rather than learn well-needed lesson in privacy and personal boundaries with the copy-nin, all Naruto managed to think was: Geez, somebody's a little cranky mask in the morning…

--

Kakashi sighed and propped his back on the headboard. He carefully lifted the covers to reveal a thoroughly flushed medic-nin peering up at him from his lap, her hair tousled from sleep and the blanket.

"Well that was close," he laughed.

Rolling over so she wasn't quite so _on_ him, she let out a breath she had been holding for Kami knows how long.

"Close doesn't even begin to describe that little encounter."

"Well we'll have to tell him sometime."

"No, we don't and he's not smart enough to figure it out on his own."

"Regardless, we can't just stay cooped-up in my apartment forever," he said, swinging his legs off the side of the bed and sitting up.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Sakura asked, not putting it past him to just get up and walk outside, consequently dragging her with him.

"I have to pee."

"…"

At the usually outspoken pink-haired woman's silence, Kakashi turned back to look at her. Her expression was one of calm disbelief.

"Sakura?" Kakashi questioned after another few moments of stunned silence. "You okay?"

She smiled and shook her head slowly. "Yeah, I'm okay. For a second there I just thought you said you had to pee."

Kakashi cocked an eyebrow (well, _the_ eyebrow) at her. "I did."

"…"

"Sakura?"

"…"

"Sakura-Chan?"

"…"

Okay so maybe she wasn't okay…


	4. Keeping It On The DL

Disclaimer: You know the drill…

Okay after the ridiculously long wait, I not-so proudly present chapter 4 in a not-so timely manner. Oh and kudos to animefan28 for not only reading, but reviewing the last chapter in less than 5 minutes after I posted it. That was some serious computer-ninja skill right there... ^-^

**Cuffed**

Chapter 4: Keeping it on the DL

"…"

"Um… Sakura-chan?"

"…"

"Just because you ignore me doesn't mean I don't still have to pee. In fact I have to pee now worse than before."

Her face turned an even darker hue of the red she was currently sporting but she still didn't say anything.

"So…," Kakashi continued as the problem was starting to become dire, "can I go?"

Sakura sucked in such a deep breath Kakashi wondered how all that air fit in her lungs and let it all back out again. It helped slightly with the color of her face, but Kakashi was still quite prepared for a screaming, if not full-on beating.

"And what am I supposed to do while you-," here she started making vague gestures with her hands, one of which was quite... inappropriate.

Kakashi barely suppressed a smile under his mask. How the hell did she think men urinated?

"Well clearly you're going to have to come with me because the toilet isn't close enough to the door that you can just stay on the other side," he explained before she could call him a pervert. Not that he wasn't one, but he could at least proudly say he wasn't one with a urolagnia fetish.

He could've sworn he saw a blood vessel burst in her forehead.

Wishing to move things along as fast as possible before he started leaking on the floor, he said, "Look, I can either pee in the bathroom and you only have to be embarrassed for a few seconds or I could pee here where you will not only be embarrassed for god knows how long, but you'll also be scarred for life. So take your pick!"

Shaking her pink head clear of the visions of said scenarios she realized she didn't really have a choice.

"Well, what's it gonna be?" Kakashi prompted looking her in the eye.

"Bathroom please!"

----------

"You know if you put that in your eye, there's an 89.7 percent chance that you will incur blindness right?"

Sakura glared at him for a second and then turned back to look at the large amount of soap she was considering rubbing into her eyes.

"Oh come on. It wasn't that bad. In fact, if you hadn't been so curious-," Kakashi began, but was cut off rather viciously.

"CURIOUS?!? WHAT THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK I WAS CURIOUS?!?" Sakura exploded.

"Well clearly you wanted to see my-!" Kakashi started, but then felt something hard smash into the back of his head.

And then everything went black.

----------

Groggily opening his eye, Kakashi took a bleary survey of his surroundings. He was in his kitchen. More specifically, on the floor of his kitchen. Looking up, he saw Sakura making something. Judging by the smell it was ramen. Apparently his being unconscious didn't stop Sakura from doing whatever the hell she wanted. _Heartless, yet admirable_, Kakashi thought.

"Eh Sakura-chan, did you really need to hit me so hard? I was just kidding around," Kakashi whined, using his free hand to inspect the very large and prominent bump now forming on the back of his head.

"Well you were being perverted. As per normal for you," Sakura said without even looking down.

"But I was just… oh never mind," the dejected, silver-haired man mumbled. Changing the topic to more pressing matters, with the wafting smell of the ramen Sakura was making, he realized he was quite hungry. Huh, that was strange. It hadn't been that long since he'd last eaten.

"Ano, Sakura? How long was I out for exactly?" he inquired.

"Eh, just over 4 hours," she said nonchalantly, turning off the stove and reaching for a bowl.

"Ah! I was supposed to have the mission report turned in by noon! Hehe, Tsunade-sama's not going to be too happy," Kakashi said, but continued to just sit there.

"Well shouldn't you get to writing it?" Sakura asked. She tugged on the chain half dragging Kakashi across the floor in her attempt to get to the table so she could eat.

Deciding it would amuse him more to watch her struggle, he just lay there like a corpse and made her drag his dead weight all the way across the room.

Of course it wasn't until after Sakura managed to hit his head on every hard, stationary object on her way to the table, like the counter, refrigerator and wall, that Kakashi started to think that might not have been such a good idea.

Half-reeling from the numerous head injuries he had sustained all in one day, Kakashi replied, "Nope. I did it while you were sleeping."

Sakura paused. _Huh, who knew the notoriously lazy copy-nin actually got his work done?_ She thought.

"Ok, well we can turn it in when I'm done eating," Sakura said, rolling up some noodles between her chopsticks and blowing on them.

Watching her eat reminded Kakashi of his own empty stomach. "Ne, Sakura… any chance there's any ramen left?" he asked hopefully if not pitifully.

"Of course not. I measured everything to the exact caloric proportions I would need for one serving for a person of my height, weight and energy output to maximize materials for the desired product."

Kakashi's hopes dropped. _Eh…_

Seeing the sad look on Kakashi's face, Sakura's expression softened. She sighed and offered the bowl and chopsticks to him. "Here."

Kakashi looked across the table at her. "But Sakura, what about you?" he asked, for once completely sincere in his concern for her well-being.

"I'll be fine. I had some rice while you were unconscious as well," Sakura lied, trying to make him feel better about taking the food.

Kakashi's eyebrow rose almost imperceptively. He knew for a fact that he didn't have any rice much less a rice cooker. But he accepted the food anyway since Sakura would go so far as to lie to him to try to get him to take it.

"Arigatou Sakura-chan."

----------

"So, how were you planning on handing in the report?" Sakura asked Kakashi from outside the Hokage tower.

"Well, as I'm sure you're well aware of, clones can't get past the special protective jutsus surrounding the Hokage's office so we'll have to do it in person. Hm… maybe I can just hand it to her through the window?" Kakashi suggested.

Sakura thought about it for a second before deciding it was their best option barring ridiculous costumes. "Ok. Let's give it a shot."

Scaling the wall in unison, the crept around to the Hokage's office window.

Motioning to Sakura to stay out of sight around the wall, Kakashi stepped into the office, stretching the chain to its full length (which was all of about six inches).

Clearing his throat to announce his presence, he said "Hokage-sama, I have the report for Sakura's and my last mission."

Looking up from behind piles and piles of unfinished paperwork, the blond woman slurred, "Kakashi? What's going on? It's a nice day don't you think?"

Kakashi sighed. Drunk and it wasn't even midday yet. Oh well, at least this way she might not notice that he was half out the win-

"Say… what're you doing half-out the window there? Come come have a drink with me!" Tsunade invited him, waving the giant almost-empty bottle of sake at him.

"Erm, no thank you Hokage-sama. I really just came by to drop off the report. I have to be going soon so I must politely decline," the copy-nin said, trying to escape. He held out the mission report to her, hoping she would just take it and let him be on his way. Or at least pass out so he could stop standing half-out the window ridiculously. Sakura was starting to tug on the chain for some reason too. Probably getting attacked by the crows that so often hung around the Hokage's window hoping for food scraps.

Tsunade got up suddenly, if not sloppily, knocking numerous papers to the ground, and headed towards him rapidly. "Nonsense! What could a lonely pervert like you have to do? It's not like you have a girlfriend or anything."

Kakashi heard a small giggle from behind him that quickly turned into a masked cough. He was tempted to say "Well it's not like you have a boyfriend!" But he refrained. Even he wasn't that insensitive, even though the pink-haired woman had gotten over her childhood crush on Sasuke long ago.

The Hokage grabbed his arm before he could pull it back and yanked him into the room in the direction of her secret stash of alcohol no doubt.

_Uh-oh. This wasn't going to end well_, Kakashi thought and promptly stumbled over the windowsill and into the room.

"Ah!" Sakura yelled as she was very unceremoniously pulled into the room on top of Kakashi. _Why do I always end up like this?_ She pondered as the heat rose in her cheeks.

Tsunade turned around at the sudden resistance. Staring at the couple now currently on the floor, she said, "Oh Sakura. I didn't know you were here. When did you get here? Hm… I must be hitting the bottle harder than I thought…"

Standing up and then helping Sakura up, Kakashi set the report on the corner of the Hokage's desk, careful to use his free hand and keep the chain behind him.

"Well there's the report, so we'll just be going now."

"Wait. Sakura, as long as you're here, I need you to fill in as acting Medical Head for me today. I'm feeling a little… woozy," Tsunade confessed, sitting down at her desk with a plop.

"Um, I'd love to Shishou, but I'm uh… kinda busy today actually," Sakura said hoping her stubborn teacher would just let it go for just one day.

"Eh? What's this? You've never turned down a chance to be the boss around the medical facility before. You say no one else organized the charts like you like them to or properly collects medical samples. So what's up?"

"Uh… um…" Sakura struggled to come up with a suitable lie that wouldn't prompt more questions. Kakashi, however, beat her to it.

"We're hand-cuffed together, Hokage-sama," he said, holding up the cuffs as proof.

Tsunade, as well as Sakura's, face turned red. "What the hell did you do to my poor Sakura, you pervert?!?" She blew up.

"Hey, who says I did it?" Kakashi asked, offended.

Teacher and student alike gave him the same withering stare of absolute conviction.

_Eh, it's scary how alike the two of them are. Like clones_, Kakashi thought.

"Well? Either of you care to explain how this happened?" Tsunade demanded.

Sakura and Kakashi looked at each other.

"He does."

"She does."

They both may be deadly, highly trained ninjas, but they still feared the wrath of their Hokage. Call them cowards or whatever you want, but they just wanted to live.

So after much deliberation, in the form of Sakura's highly biased re-telling of the mission's events, with particular emphasis on how it was entirely Kakashi's fault, Tsunade ordered them to go see a binding jutsu specialist to see if they could remove the cuffs. Well at least that was she attempted to order, however she was laughing so much, Shizune had to issue the order.

So they slipped out the window the same way they had come, headed towards the ANBU headquarters where the specialists resided.

"Ne, Kakashi?"

"Hai, Sakura-chan?"

"Do you think the specialist will be able to do anything about this? I mean, you said it needed the unlocking jutsu for this particular binding jutsu. Do you really think he'll know it?" Sakura asked, staring intently at the cuffs as if they would just whisper their secrets to her.

"I don't know. I don't want to jinx it, but I really don't think so," Kakashi confessed.

Sakura went quiet. Damn. It had only been one day and the inherent loss of her privacy and freedom were already beginning to take a toll on her. How the hell was she supposed to take a shower? She'd already gone 2 days without one. She was pretty sure that Kakashi would never say anything about her smell, but she knew she had to be getting pretty stanky. She tried to covertly sniff her armpit.

But her attempts were interrupted by a loud "Sakura-chan!"

Sakura groaned. She'd know that gratingly cheerful voice anywhere. She looked up to see Naruto's blond mop bounding towards them.

Kakashi and Sakura exchanged a look of half annoyance and half indecisiveness. What should they do? It was too late to hide. He'd already seen them. But if they stayed, he'd notice for sure. Even Naruto wasn't that blind. Well there was nothing to do but tell him and hope that he'd keep it a secret.

May Kami have mercy on their souls.

----------

Sorry it's so short, but I really wanted to get it out today. So review and make me a happy panda! ^-^


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